Monthly Archives: January 2009

Discotek is going to release a long overdue North American version of Fist of the North Star (aka Hokuto no Ken) this May. Though they’ve done well with previous asian oddities (Zero Woman: Red Handcuffs, Burst City), I’m holding my breath to see just how good or bad the quality of the release is. Having just recently watched a clean VHS copy of the English dub, I’m very aware that anything could be better than what original western audiences were subjected to years ago, but here’s hoping that the countless limb severing and head explosion scenes in this version cause my TV to bleed through my carpet.

For those who are in the unfortunate position of having never seen the feature-length film before, other than pleading with you to watch it, I don’t know what else to say to you besides, “This franchise is such a big deal that at one point, you could (can?) even get Hokuto no Ken instant ramen.” What started out as a comic written by a guy whose name sounds like a Japanese person saying “Bronson” made it’s way past the world of video games with the hopes of entering your stomach.

More images of manly, hyper-violent noodles can be found here. If you’re reading this long after this post has been made, you can check out Discotek’s news page for updates and availability.

All this month – and next month if you can believe it – the Gene Siskel Film Center is showing an astounding twenty films from extraordinarily influential Japanese director Nagisa Oshima. Unfortunately I dragged my heels on posting this, assuming that anyone who reads a&o probably wouldn’t watch any of these…though I suppose that was an unfair assumption on my part. Either way, whether you’re a cinephile or not, you should definitely watch as many of Oshima’s films as you can – especially in an incomparable theater setting like the Siskel Center. It’s very possible that you’ll never get a chance to some of these films (with English subtitles) ever again, and you certainly won’t get a chance to see so many of Oshima’s films at once.

All show times for the films listed below can be found at the Siskel Center site, or you can give them a call at 312-846-2600.

With the new year comes a new project by the fine folks of absurdandobscure.com; a site driven by completely unoriginal content not unlike what you would find at a&o. Rather than writing new content, the new site will be a constantly updated collection of content provided by others. It is my esteemed pleasure to introduce to the world…mind-rot.com.

I’m excited about the new project/site/portal to nonsense that will cover the work of innumerable scourges of the Earth at as rapid of a speed as possible. There’s no reason you shouldn’t be excited about it either, especially if you frequent this poor excuse for a blog/site/sounding board of relatively disreputable schlock/sheer awesomeness.

As of today, mind-rot.com is obviously still in the process of becoming completed, but the finishing touches aren’t far off. I’ve wanted to get this thing together for months, but because of reasons too boring to go into, both the new project and a&o had to suffer. I’m sure you pulled through these past couple of months though…just a wild guess from the 13,000 views that absurdandobscure.com received last year. Speaking of, I want to sincerely thank every single person that checked this site out last year. We’re hoping things will be significantly different this year, especially when it comes to digging into the depths of the worst acting caught on film, the best hardcore bands you keep ignoring for the dumbest reasons, brain melting foreign oddities and other indescribably engaging ephemera.

So be sure to check out both sites whenever you get the chance…you never know what absurd and/or obscure stuff might get the honor of being uncovered.